


In Dreams

by Kaniner



Category: Supernatural, xxxHoLic
Genre: Gen, Hurt Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-15 14:19:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7225861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaniner/pseuds/Kaniner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam's wall has come down and Bobby wishes to help.  (COMIC) **Fixed broken links</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 00-001

**Author's Note:**

> But in dreams  
> I still hear your name  
> And in dreams  
> We will meet again


	2. Who is Yuuko?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Rough draft)  
> From the personal journal of Bobby Singer, the entry of Yuuko Ichihara

I ran away to Japan when Karen died. I tried to escape my old life and didn't have a choice about hunting -it was fight or die. The fear, the adrenaline. It reminded me I was still livin'. The voyage to Japan ended with a crew dead and me wandering around Tokyo not knowin' a lick of the language.

 

It was confusing, at times frustrating and impossible, but therapeutic. Japan was a fresh start, as clean as the slate was ever gonna get. This time around, I knew I was making a difference. Savin' lives, even if people didn't know it.

 

I ran with a group of Japanese hunters who taught me the language, the lore and kept me from getting killed on more'n one occasion. Their ancestors must've crossed paths with Westerners before on the job, because the Japanese word for Hunter is the borrowed term “hantaa.”

 

I was at breakfast when I first heard about her. All it took was one word to get my attention in all the wrong ways.

 

“Witch.”

 

Witch of Dimensions, Far Eastern, Space-Time, didn't matter to me. Someone was dabbling in magic, and that needed to get looked at. Still mourning Karen, I admit I had a bit more of a black and white view of good n' evil, so when I went to find her mysterious shop, it was with iron cuffs and a 22mm.

 

They said I would only find her shop if I “had a need” for it. I went to the address, but it was just an overgrown, vacant lot. _In the middle of Tokyo_. I watched the spot for days. Once, a girl walked onto the grounds and vanished. I tried to chase her, but it didn't do no good. She walked back out twenty minutes later, unharmed. Whatever deal she struck was done.

 

The hantaa got tired of me wasting my time there, since they tried telling me she wasn't harmful.

 

“Yuuko-San is a good person,” the elder told me. “She is not a malicious force.”

 

They said they could give me a reason to see her shop. The patriarch had collected an obscure, antique camera and asked me to deliver it to her. It was developed by an occult philosopher and had the ability to take pictures of ghosts _and exorcise_ them. Nifty thing, and valuable.

 

The camera would serve as payment for information, locations of harmful spirits or useful sutras. They told me now I had purpose and to go back. It wasn't a wish _per se_ but it would count as a transaction.

 

The store was there, sittin as if it had been all along, and it was, just waitin' for me. The architecture resembled Western styles and was decorated with moons and bells, with large cherry trees that scattered blossoms everywhere.

 

As soon as I crossed through the fence, the busy sounds of Tokyo disappeared. I couldn't smell the pollution or exhaust from cars, hear the chatter of people passing, none of it. It felt like I was in the middle of a nature reserve, the whole _atmosphere_ felt different.

 

I understood why I couldn't find it earlier. It wasn't some concealment charm that hid her store. It existed in a different _space-time._ It hit me then, she was the Witch of _Dimensions_. It wasn't just talk, this woman could _really_ bend time and space.

 

Somehow, my feet knew just where to go and I felt almost pulled in. Smoke curled through the air from incense, but I could smell tobacco from behind a screen door. I didn't try to sneak in (frankly, you try stealth with those damned shōji doors).

 

There she was, draped across an elegant chaise lounge, looking like some haute couture model (yeah, lookit me with the big words). She's beautiful, but I never trust a pretty face on looks alone. Her eyes are like a cat, and I still don't know what color they are. Red? Yellow? Green? I think she changes them just to mess with people. She's usually smoking her pipe and I swear that smoke is as alive as she is.

 

 

She wasn't surprised to see me. I didn't figure she would'a been, probably had me made from day one. Probably knew I was packing too. This time though, I wasn't geared for a fight, but that don't mean I wasn't nervous.

 

“You were fated to come here.”

 

Way to break the ice on a man about to freak out, Ichihara.

 

"I've brought a camera from the hantaa for some information," I said.

 

"Information for who?"

 

Instinctively, I wanted to say it was their rainy day fund, but something in her eyes told me different. Maybe the elder had given me this payment because he wanted me to learn from her. For an outsider, they had been exceedingly generous with their wisdom and wares.

 

She accepted the camera and said I could come back to observe her work and look through her library if I wanted. The camera must have had some value if she offered me that much knowledge. Information brokers these days can have unreasonable prices. But nope, just take a look at my spells, charms and encyclopedias of creatures that _no one_ else knew existed. Hell, she probably made some of them.

 

She's created GODS for worlds. **GODS**. And entire _**worlds!**_ I cannot imagine what the price could have been and she only smiled when I asked.

 

"Those children are still paying."

 

She's granted wishes for all beings, anything that can pay. She don't discriminate between good an' bad, because according to her, good and bad are concepts humans created and they only apply to mortals; not up to her to decide what's what. So, if someone's gonna make a mistake or injure themselves, she won't stop them. I think she can see the future. Nothing surprises her, but maybe it's just because she accepts all outcomes. “Everything is inevitable" (hitsuzen, 必然, ひつぜん) .“ She'll get her use outta that word. If I had a nickel...

 

“Wishes are ruthless” she said to me once. I used to think the price was unfair, that she was a greedy salesman. Worse, I thought she was like a crossroads demon, trying to screw you over and get your soul. But now I understand.

 

"For everything you wish, you have to pay an equal price in return. You can't get more or give more. You can't get less or give less. It must be in balance, or else there will be chaos."

 

It's not just chaos, wishes are paid for often with souls, abilities (like talent, psychic powers, skills) or precious objects. You won't end up in hell from dealing with Yuuko, but I'm not sure what's happened to the few who refused to back down from a wish that cost them everything. She's bound to some equivalent exchange, so she can't go doing favors, even if she wanted to. If she takes too much or too less, she pays the remainder herself and who knows what the damage could be. The only thing that's free is the exchange of feelings.

 

I hung around the store a few weeks to see how she operates. The first client I witnessed couldn't have been more than fourteen and seemed scared. She claimed her home was haunted and begged Yuuko to make her house “not scary anymore.”

 

Yuuko's face was serious as she asked her to clarify her wish. Yuuko never let emotions show on her face with this girl, gave her no sympathy or judgement.

 

“I wish my house wasn't scary.”

 

Yuuko gave her a pair of shrine bells, and told her to keep them on her. The girl came back twice, saying it was only getting worse. Yuuko would simply give her another set of bells, each larger than the next.

 

After the third return visit, the girl was in a frenzy, terrified, claiming the bells were useless. She was hysterical, almost to the point of violence. Yuuko gave her a large set of bells and told her to stay home, that her wish would be granted.

 

After she had left, Yuuko said she wouldn't be back.

 

I realized what she meant at home that night. A hantaa had visited a house that had been complaining of hearing strange noises for weeks. It had begun to get worse over the past few days and suddenly a new noise started -bells. They swore someone was in the house with them. Finally, the ghost of a young girl became visible and screamed at them to leave, to leave her alone. The couple called a priest, who sent one of the hantaa out to exorcise her.

 

It was her. She didn't realize she was dead, that she was making the house scary for the new home-owners. Yuuko granted her wish. The house isn't haunted any longer.

 

So... trite but true, even here. Be careful what you wish for.

 

Yuuko knew what the girl was from the moment she stepped foot on the property. Maybe my ecto-senses weren't tingling because of the spiritual nature of Yuuko's home, but I could kick myself for not noticing earlier.

 

“She is something that mustn't stay in that place,” was all Yuuko had to say about her.

  
I wasn't happy with Yuuko for that case. It felt like she had lied to that girl, like she could have handled it different, been straight with her. But the ghost was gone (sent off properly) and the humans were happy. So why did I feel dirty? I guess because I'm not a fan of crying or scared women and kids and she got to me.

 

Some of her cases were like that -ambiguous. People getting themselves into trouble pre and post wish, ignoring Yuuko's warnings, wishing to hide crimes (those never ended up favourable for anyone, let me tell ya that). But she helped a lot of people too. Between the morally grey world, I saw a lot of good, a lot of happiness come from a wish. The price doesn't always hurt, and many times the pay-off is well worth it.

 

I spent the last few days pouring over books in her warehouse. I learned about thousands of creatures that existed parallel to us. Most weren't harmful, and it was surprising to me to learn just how damned-many creatures exist just out of sight.

 

I used to think, “if it's not human, kill it.” I know different now. Of all of the supernatural critters, spirits and demigods out there, few of them are actually evil. Even fewer are benevolent, but most just prefer to exist separately. Usually only psychics can see any of 'em.

 

Yuuko had plenty of non-human visitors at the shop. One of my favorites was a Yumekai, a dream collector yokai. He collects dreams and nightmares, raises them like plants and sells them. He looks more like a balloon vendor, since that's what he stores the dreams in (I don't why, but he's quite a sight). To use a dream, you tie it near you while you sleep and you'll experience the dream inside.

Some of the dreams are premonitory, holy, you name it. He's a nice enough spirit. Doesn't like to be haggled with [[[but if you want a fair deal, _don't_ pay the listed price!!]] _._

 

 

 

Suffice it to say, Japan is a strange place. We just don't have the same spirits in the West. It's all wendigos and werewolves stateside, all blood, gore and pain -besides the Zanna.

 

I miss that part, if I'm honest. Having a drink with Yuuko and whatever cat or rain spirit stayed for a chat after a transaction. Of course there are demons and evil spirits there too that had to be dealt with. Yuuko never stopped me, but it did put a damped on my relationship with some of her other customers. But we had respect for each other.

 

I left when I'd learned everything I could from the hantaa and worked my way through her library twice.

 

She said she would have an assistant working for soon. I doubt she meant she'd been taking applications like regular folk. Something big is going to happen in Japan. Or, knowing her, the universe.

 

Or all of them.

 

Gah. Her with her multiverse crap. Only, it's not _theory_. I didn't have the heart to break it to Sam and Dean that whenever they were plopped into the past, or that timeline with the Croatoan and Lucifer/Sam and didn't like what they saw... they didn't exactly fix anything. Those worlds exist as they are, separate from ours. They just took a peek through the window. Scares the daylights outta me, if I'm honest. Sort of comforting too, that Karen is still alive somewhere, Sam and Dean have a real life, and hell, in one of them, all our dreams have come true.

 

Still.. I'll stick to my own space-time, thanks.

 

I will say though, there's only one Yuuko Ichihara.

 

-B.S.

 


	3. 1+2




	4. 3+4

  



	5. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all I have completed at the moment. I will post more if people like it. I made this for my own amusement, but I'm not going to post it online if no one cares (I get really anxious when a work has a bunch of views and no comments or anything. Makes me think my submissions are shite and I shouldn't post). So, please leave a kudo or comment if you're interested. It would make my day. :D  
> I've never made a full fan comic before and I'm really nervous that it's no good. But, well, we have to start somewhere, right?


	6. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave kudos or drop me a line if you enjoy this, please!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My tumblr](http://kaninenkung.tumblr.com/)


	7. 7




	8. 8




	9. 9




	10. 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might have been way distracted with Pokemon Go and Terra lately. XD Hopefully I'll push the rest of the pages out sooner.


	11. 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bobby learns the price he must pay to take away Sam's nightmares of Lucifer and Hell.


	12. Chapter 12




	13. My mother told me to pick the very best one....

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> http://kaninenkung.tumblr.com/
> 
> Please comments or like or something if you're enjoying this. Makes me feel better.


	14. ...and you… are… … it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Comments are love. Let me know there's still an audience here.


	15. Chapter 15




	16. Chapter 16




	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duck-face. A-WHOO-ooh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://kaninenkung.tumblr.com/


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure about this page. :/ Subject to revision.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead. Some of the next pages may vary in quality, since I'm just going to post the rough drafts to get the story done. I'll go back and shade properly later. My girlfriend said she'd help me but she hasn't had time yet. Dialogue and image quality will change, but the story will be unchanged.


	20. Chapter 20




	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is anyone alive out there? Can anyone hear me?


End file.
